I recently went to an educational conference, organised by the British Council, for professionals involved in English language teaching in Bratislava.
I met many teachers from all over country and heard about their experiences in the classroom and attended talks from a variety of speakers about new trends and developments in English teaching. The event really opened my eyes to the different cutting edge teaching methods that are currently being developed and used by experts all over the world.
I heard from world renowned English language specialists, participated in workshops and learnt about breakthrough methods for learning English in context. I spoke to numerous teachers, publishers, researchers and other professionals. It was great to brain storm teaching ideas with people from all over the world and from very different backgrounds with very different experiences, I came away with lots of inspiration for new lessons but also with ideas for new ways to deliver my lessons that I hadn’t even considered before. The internet has opened the world of English teaching up in a way that would have been impossible twenty-years ago, students can connect and work with their counterparts all over the world and practise their English in context every time they log on. However, out of everything I learnt, what surprised me most was that, although everyone was equally passionate and interested in their job, they all had something different to say.
The conference made me realise that teaching is a really individual speciality, both for the teacher and the students. No two lessons can ever be the same, even when taken from the same text book, every teacher, every class adds something different. For me, that is why teaching is never dull, it is magical and you get to experience something new every day.
